It seems weird to say that I am prepping for my last sermon, but the pastors thought it would be too uch on his people to have the 4 hour youth rally and then a service afterwards so tonight is the last night for me to preach. I have been amazed so far how God has used the team. At last count, there have been 123 professions of faith and countless other reconciliations and times of encouragement that we have been able to provide. The team is out right now doing another fiesta and if like it was in the past there may be many more professions of faith before the end of the day.

It also amazes me that we can share the gospel so easily here when at home it is difficult sometimes to even leave the house. I think it would be great if we could pack up the entire church and come down here for 2-weeks so that we all could see how successful God’s word is when it is shared boldly in the streets. This is a call to all of you to accept this challenge to be involved. I know that we say that we are, but how involved is your life with spiritual matters. This week yet again has proven to me that I need to be doing more. Through the message the other night that God laid on my heart I proclaimed that their is no preparation needed to accept the gospel, and that there is an urgency in accepting the Gospel, but this can also be turned around. There is no preparation required in order to share the Gospel. We all have a testimony as Gerson found out last night when I had him give his, and if you are a Christian and you are living for Jesus, then you should have a reason for the hope that is in you and a basic understanding of how to be a Christian, so what more do you need. Secondly, there is also an urgency to sharing the gospel. As Wes said today to a few people, none of us knows the day or the hour of the Lord’s return or the day of our demise, so how can we allow the world around us to die as we live. We must remember that we are in a race against time and the one that is waiting behind is the one who will miss out on the blessing that comes from sharing your faith, not to mention that if you love your friends and neighbors, they are as drowning men with only moments to live, are you going to wait to throw them a line, or you going to ensure that they live.

Share on Facebook

Today was the day that I had prepared for the most. It was our leadership day and my plan was to preach on the book of 1 John. This is why we had used these passages on Wednesday Nights back home. But God has a sense of humor. He has been expressing it all week this week. Everyday I have spent a number of hours studying and writing sermons because God has changed them altogether. Today was no different.

We did not have a leadership night tonight. I was told at the beginning of the week that the zone pastors met and they decided that this year was going to be an evangelism year and that all of the teams that came this year they want them to push evangelism so my message changed. The only issue was that I had no access to my computer because we were about 2 hours away from Comayagua (only 1 hour coming home, all down-hill). But God knows what he is doing and all went well.

We met with a little resistance today in both people and health. During evangelism time this morning there were many who were just completely resistant to the gospel and to us even being there. A few of us had said that if this was the first time out we would be discouraged, but with 98 professions of faith, We are all still ready for more.

Our resistance in health was not from me surprisingly, I made it all day with only aleve this morning, but it was from Eric. Do not fear, he is fine and joking with the best of us now. We were afraid that his blood pressure was high because he was getting a “weird” feeling that he could not explain and was half dizzy. He told us that his blood pressure medicine did not come in before we left so he had not taken it since we arrived. Thankfully, pharmacies in Honduras don’t require you to have a prescription for much of anything so we were able to get his medicine. Before we gave it to him, we also had his blood-pressure checked and he was fine. It was not high at all.

After all of this, what we found was that he was going through withdrawls from cafeine. Since he did not have his medicine he did not want to drink his normal coke per day since we left and he was feeling the effects. I am not sure if it was the medicine or the coca-cola that did the trick, but he was fired up and ready to roll in a few hours. So back tot he coke a day Eric!

It is late so I will end here. The service tonight was amazing, and I am so proud of the team and the energy they have out into the trip. I have figured out though, that if we come back, we need to bring more candy and stuffed toys, we have almost run out already.

I think next time I want to go to Costa Rica though, but we will have to wait and see.

Hasta Manyana

Share on Facebook

It is such a blessing to have hot water this time. I was not looking forward to having cold showers this week, so I am glad that we didn’t have to. Today we are heading out to do some more door-to-door and then later we are going to be doing a VBS in a day. It has been a blessing seeing people step up to volunteer to help plan and organize these events even though they may not know what to expect.

For th most part everyone is working well together and Arlene told me that this group is doing great, so the team gets an “A” for day one and I am proud of their efforts and look forward to what they can do today through Christ!

We all know that Jesus is the strength, power, and purpose of all that we do, and as we are studying this week in our morning devotions, “It’s Not About Me!” My prayer for today is that we all remember that simple message of wisdom from Max Lucado. I know that the easiest way to wreck a trip is to take our focus off of Christ and to turn it ontoourselves. That is when the complaining begins because we are more concerned with our own feelings or wants. I thought it fitting that the Bible story that the team chose for VBS was Jesus walking on the water because in that story Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. If we want to walk with Jesus we need to remember to focus on him and him alone and leave our fellings and our selfishness behind.

Rich

Share on Facebook

This has been a busy afternoon. We went to the hospital and were able to pray for everyone. We gave toys to the children, hats to the men, and purses to the women. I will say that I worried about the conditions of the hospital and most will probably think they were terrible, and by our standards they are, but compared to Choluteca this hospital was wonderful.

We then walked a couple of miles through downtown through the open air market. Of course then we went to the soveigneer shops. We then went to an extremely old church that the translator, Jasmine, said it had the oldest clock in South America in it.

We ended up at a mall of all places where we found a Dunkin Donuts. Too bad we spent all our money on souveineers.

There were a number of nice parks that we were able to go to and in one there were even a number of kids breakdancing. Took me back to the eighties.

I am looking forward to tomorrow but I am also hoping that my pain will subside. It has been a long hard day, but so far I am keeping up.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, but already missing home.

Rich

Share on Facebook

The team witnessed 21 professions of faith and was able to pray and encourage a few others. Praise God the trip has already been worth the effort put into it because even one person has come to know Christ! Today was amazing to see my 12 year old son Isaiah brave up and share the gospel with a family. Totally Cool!

Stephanie, Beth, and Ida are practicing the Yu are God Alone to sing at service tomorrow night and we are leaving in about 30 minutes to visit the hospital and the shopping. Since there are 5 guys and 5 girls, I think there are mixed feelings about the shooping, but it should be pretty cool to visit an open-air market, plus I have some soveineers to pick up for Tom and Joey so it is a must for all.

We will blog more when we have the time. Keep praying for us because it is working and people are being saved. My prayer is the momentum that has been started here will spread to everyone when we return.

Share on Facebook

We have been blogging in word, patiently awaiting the return of our internet connection. I have a feeling with the power outage it has taken out the host end of the connection because I have checked everything in the house, so we are blogging in Word so we can upload them later. Hopefully no one is worried. The team, I believe based on our share time last night, is beginning to have their eyes opened to perhaps one of the purest form of worship that they have ever experienced and it is good to see them interacting.

Today is our break day. We will be doing door-door evangelism in the morning and then visiting a hospital this afternoon and then they are going to take us to town to the open air market to do some shopping. I’m thinking I may come back to the hacienda (house) and rest instead of shop, but then that would mean I would have to let loose of the money to Amy and I am not sure I want to do that.

It is 6:15am here (7:15am there) and the sun is just now coming up of the mountain (or those from Tennessee would call it a hill), the roosters graced us by waiting until 4:30am before they began their hour long tribute to the sun.

We all thought about Joey last night when the band stepped on stage, they even had a five string bass that the man played like a regular electric as fast as he was pickin’ it at times. Tony would have been impressed. Oh and Tony, you would have envied the drum set, I counted 7 toms and 5 cymbals, the only thing missing was a second bass drum.

The team is beginning to wake up for breakfast so I will end this session, but it is always nice to hear laughter this early in the morning. Too often in our busy half of the hemisphere we wake to hustle, bustle and rush that we neglect our joy. As Paul in Philippians 2 said, we are to complete his Joy and be Glad and Rejoice in the work that we have been given because everything that we do should be done for God’s glory.

Rich – 1/11/10 – 6:21am

Share on Facebook

This morning went well. We were able to witness 8 baptisms in very cold water. Thank God from brother Duard and warm water. It was a little chilly today, around 55 and the water temperature was probably about the same. It was also interesting that we came to Honduras to meet people from Switzerland. Their son was one of the people being baptized today.

The worship was great. The pastor of this church is also affiliated with Compassion International so their financial support is good and they even had “wall-music” this morning. That was great because we were able to sing along as well, at least in our Kentucky draw pronunciations.

We got back from the service and Fanny had pork steaks and potatoes for us. I swear I am bringing here home with us. Amy would agree. I then realized we had no power. There is some pretty good wind today and I guess it knocked something out so I have been hand-writing my sermon and for those that know me, I type for a reason. Thankfully we have power and all is good.

It is always amazes me how God works out the details. We opened all of the totes this afternoon and everything that was donated fits well with what we are doing all week. Tonight we are going to be at another church at 6:00pm and then tomorrow we are going to go door-to-door in the community (get out the walking shoes).

I am hoping for a good nights rest before the choir of rooster’s all crow yet again in the morning. But our rule for the week along with part of my sermon tonight which comes from Philippians 2 is that we will do all things without grumbling or questioning so may God be glorified even when the rooster’s crow.

The rest of the team is in the back playing a little basketball this afternoon which gives me a little peace in order to finish my sermon preparation so I will have them blog more this evening, barring no more power outages. I look forward to seeing what God will do this week.

Rich

Share on Facebook

It is now 5:00am KY time. Pastor Keith should be proud of me. It is 4:00am here so I may go back to bed though. We thank everyone for their prayers and their support. Today will be our first ministry day. We will be leading at 3 different church services. We have a fairly lengthy break between which we will use to go through all of the donations that we received.

The team got their first experience with Fanny’s cooking yesterday and I would say they were all quite pleased. Pastor said he usually loses weight on mission trips, but that’s because he hasn’t had Fanny cooking for him 3 ties a day.

As I was preparing last night for this mornings sermon I was struggling with it, but I realized that in my haste I was trying to use a sermon that I had previously prepared and just fit it to Today. About a month ago I had chosen all of the scripture for this week and on Friday when the pressure was on I chose to ignore that list. God reminded me in a mighty way that he is in control and not me when I opened Philippians 2:1-11 and within an hour had a complete sermon pour through me. I don’t think I have ever type that fast before. Now I just have to fix Arlene’s PC so I can print it out.

Today, as you are reading this blog, remember that in everything we do, we should not do it for ourselves, but we should do everything for God’s glory and to honor Him.

For those prayer warriors, I could use some for my back. Last night was difficult hetting to sleep, but I am determined to ignore the pain and praise God through it.

It is a little cold and quite windy this morning but it is a far cry from 12 degree so I’ll take it.

Well the rooster is crowing so I am either going to get up or go back to bed, either way I’l blog more later.

Rich

Share on Facebook

The Internet connection is a little slow, but I will see if I can work my majic this week to speed things up. We had to de-ice in both Louisville and Atlanta, but it is a pleasant 70 degrees and beutiful in comparison. We are in Comayagua Honduras. We are looking forward to a great trip. Travel day went smooth and all of the totes and luggage made it safe as well as the rest of us. I will try to upload pictures as soon as I can, but I will put a few of them now. Some of the others will also blog later. For all of those at Kings we are praying for you as I know you are praying for us.

For Joey, we miss you and you are still part of the team whether you are in KY or C.A., keep the faith brother.

Share on Facebook

Where to begin. Today we had about 4 inches of snow, beautiful and white. Schools were all cancelled so I am not sure how my son will get all of his homework he’s going to need while we are gone, but if I had thought that this was the biggest problem we would be in the clear. But I am behind in my sermon preparation and trying to get packed and deal with all of the details is overwhelming and to top it off my back has been throbbing all day long. I read about Ida’s vehicle issues yesterday and then the worst happened. Tonight, I received a call from Joey’s mom telling me that he had been in a four wheeler accident. Evidently he has 2 broken ribs and 4 broken vertebrae. He also has some bleeding behind his spine. The doctor said he is lucky to be alive. It is not luck it is God. God has a plan, what it is right now, I am not sure. Joey was our music person for the Honduras Trip and was going to lead a youth rally. He will be greatly missed this week, but I pray that God will reveal his will to us. I am confident that through this tragedy God will be glorified. I am also excited that with as much as has gone wrong this month in order to discourage us that Satan is afraid of the impact that we will have this week. We will triumph in the name of Jesus! Get though behind us Satan!

Share on Facebook